Railroad-frog



(No Model.)

D. L. BURNETT & L. DE LISLE.

RAILROAD FROG.

No. 357,951. Patented Feb. 15, 1887.

w dcmeooeo v Jay 662W NITE STATES ATENT OFFICE.

DANIEL L. BURNETT AND LEON DE LISLE, OF FLORISANT, MISSOURI.

RAI LROAD-FROG.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Latte rs Patent No. 357,951, dated February 15, 1887. Application filed March 13, 1886. Serial No. 195,144. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, DANIEL L. BURNETT and LEON DE LISLE, citizens of the United States, residing at Florisant, in the county of St. Louis and State of Missouri, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Railway-Frogs; and we hereby declare the following to be afull, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawing, which is a perspective view of a frog embodying our invention.

Railway-frogs as now commonly constructed have the wing rails supported by fillingblocks or packing-blocks, as they are commonly termed, and the rails are secured to the cross-ties by the use of spikes. This construction is objectionable, because of the liability of the flange of the car-wheel being broken by striking the filling-blocks, and also from the tendency of the wing-rails to spread or to become displaced by the breaking of either rail or bolts, or by the loosening of the spikes by means of which the frogs are secured. The spreading of the rails, fracture of rails, bolts, and wheel-flanges are of common occurrence at all times, but are more frequent in frosty weather.

The objects of our present invention are, first, to dispense with fillingblocks, so as to avoid injury to car-wheels; and, secondly, to so secure the point and wing rails that the spreading thereof will not occur under any ordinary wear and tear.

To this end the invention may be generally stated to consist in a railway-frog wherein the point and wing rails are riveted at short intervals to a common base-plate and supported by a series of horizontal through-bolts and interposed brace-sleeves, alhas herein more fully set forth, whereby the railsareprevented from lateral displacement in case of fracture, are supported against spreading strain, and at the same time the objectionable filling-blocks commonly employed are dispensed with.

We will now proceed to describe our inven tion more specifically, so that others skilled in the art to which it appertains may apply the same.

In the drawing, A A indicate the cross ties or timbers for the support of the frog, which may be laid either diagonal or straight, as preferred.

B 0 indicate the point-rails, which may be either bolted or welded at their junction, as preferred.

D E indicate the wing-rails, and F the bedplate, which forms the common support or point of attachment for both the point and wing rails. Upon this bed-plate F are arranged the rails B O D E in proper position to form the frog, and they are then secured to the plate by a series of bolts or rivets, f, which pass through the flanges of the rails and the bed-plate at short intervals, or at least sufficiently close together to prevent any lateral separation of the pieces of the rail in case of fracture. The wing-rails D E are then bound together and further supported against spreading strain by the transverse bolts d, which pass through the several rails and through stretcher and brace sleeves e, which not only support the rails and disseminate the strain over the whole frog, but also preserve the distance or spacing and the relative position of the point and wing rails.

Instead of spikes, as now commonly used, we secure the bed-plate F to the cross ties or timbers A by a series of lag-screws, a a, which gives the frog a firmer and better hold on the ties.

The advantages arising from our invention are that the frog will not spread, even though the rails composing it'should be broken. lhere are no filling or packing blocks or brace-bars to fracture the flanges of passing wheels, and the frog is very simple, as well as sufficiently elastic or yielding.

We are aware that the wing and point rails have heretofore been riveted or bolted to a common base-plate, and also that asingle transverse bolt with spreading thimbles or sleeves has been used to preserve the distance between the point and wing rails, and do not herein claim such constructions,independently considered, because, in the first instance the usual filling-block is necessarily employed to support the rails, whereas it is the object of our invention to avoid the filling-block, and in the second instance there is no provision to prevent the lateral displacement of the rails in case of fracture; whereas in our invention the through-bolts and sleeves relieve the rivetfastenings of the rails from lateral strain, and the rivets coact with the through-bolts to prevent displacement of the rails in case of fracbetween the said rails, substantially as and for ture. the purposes specified.

Having thus described the nature and ad- In testimony whereof we have hereunto set vantages of our invention, what we claim, and our signatures. 5 desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

In a railway-frog, the combination of point- DAN. L. BURNETT.

rails and wing-rails {with each other and with LEON DE LISLE' a common bed-plate to which said rails are Witnesses: bolted or riveted, and a series of transverse GEo. L. lVIONlAIGUE,

:0 bolts provided with brace-sleeves arranged BERNARD FORTER. 

